Wednesday 6 June 2012 09.10 EDT
First published on Wednesday 6 June 2012 09.10 EDT

It is one of the most successful branding exercises in French politics, but François Hollande's self-styled image as President Normal, Mr Normal and a Normal Guy is starting to grate on some French journalists, who have called for a moratorium on the word "normal".

In the runup to the crucial two-round parliamentary elections which begin on Sunday 10 June, Hollande's gestures during his first weeks in office have been designed to showcase how "normal" he is in contrast with his "bling" rightwing predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. The former Socialist party leader and rural MP wants to keep living in his rented flat in the west of Paris instead of the Elysée palace.

Photographed shopping in a local supermarket before his election, he prefers to travel by train or car, with his cavalcade even respecting red lights, whereas Sarkozy favoured jets. He has cut his salary by 30% and reduced his security contingent. His partner, the political journalist Valérie Trierweiler, who herself once described him in an article as a "normal man", is the first presidential partner to continue in a salaried job.

Even before the daily Libération used the one-word front-page headline "Normal!" to mark Hollande's election as president in May, the word was fast becoming the most-used adjective in French political writing. When Hollande's official portrait by the Magnum photographer Raymond Depardon, feted for documenting French rural life, was unveiled this week, it was assessed as a "normal" image of a "normal" president.

After its Google News search returned more than 43,000 results for the search "Hollande + Normal", and more than 88,000 for "President + normal", the site launched a "No 'Normal' Day", hashtagged on Twitter, in which it beseeched journalists to broaden their vocabulary, asking did they really mean "normal", or perhaps "ordinary", "natural", "sober", "honest" or "reasonable"?

The initiative didn't immediately seem to have worked as headlines about the D-day commemorations in Normandy zoomed in on the fact that the "normal" president was travelling two and half hours by car rather than flying up from Paris and that the museum and cemetery he was visiting would not be closed to the public. "President Normal's visit to the provinces," headlined the news weekly Le Point on its website.

"What's the difference between a normal president and a hyperpresident?" the magazine asked, comparing Hollande's trip by car to Sarkozy's arrival by helicopter for a visit to Normandy in 2011.

Hollande, whose first test at the ballot box comes with the parliamentary elections on 10 June and 17 June, has enjoyed high popularity ratings since taking office. A new Ifop poll for Paris Match this week showed 63% of French voters approved of his performance, although this was four points lower than the record-breaking popularity of Sarkozy just after his election in 2007.

Hollande's capacity to lead effectively and put through reforms such as raising taxes for the wealthiest depends on the left's score in parliamentary elections. Hollande is hoping for a Socialist absolute majority. Polls suggest the broad French left will control parliament but the Socialists could need the backing of allies including the Greens and more hardline leftists to form a majority.

Hollande's government on Wednesday signed off a decree on a key campaign promise to roll back Sarkozy's pension reform and partially lower the pension age to 60 for people who have worked since a young age, such as 18 or 19.

The decision to press ahead with it comes despite an EU warning that France will struggle to meet its fiscal targets without spending cuts.